The weekend (Warning: long post is loooooong)

Now that the clock's flipped over to midnight, I find time to sit down and record my thoughts of the past weekend.

On Saturday, I attended Heatherwyne Anniversary in La Verne. I once again served as herald of the day, and was surprised at opening court to be awarded with the Token of the Busy Bee, Heatherwyne's unofficial service award. It's a beautiful token, a triangular piece of purple glass upon which three brass bees sit, and it's the first time a territory in which I am not a resident has recognized me with an award. I'm truly honored and pleaeed to be one of Heatherwyne's Busy Bees.

Heatherwyne Anniversary is a really fun, laid-back event known for its unusual games (the last time I attended, I won the skillet-throwing contest which, like the name suggests, is a contest wherein one throws a cast-iron skillet for distance. My distance was 72' 2"). This year, they brought back the "pillage and woo" set of games. The former involves defending a small chest of goodies from theft while attempting to steal other players' chests. Her Highness Eleanor won this game by conscripting fighters to serve as "collections officers." The other was the wooing contest. Those who wished to participate would either woo or be wooed. Those to be wooed took a sprig of plastic cherries and pinned it to an outer garment. Those wooing would seek out their subjects and attempt to convince them to give up their cherries, either by sweet talk, song and dance, poetry recital, or (my technique) back massages. The previous time Heatherwyne played this game, I won, beating even Sir Philippe de Tournay. And I'm proud to say that with 16 cherry sprigs, I was victorious again this year.

After the event, I drove up to Bakersfield, where my family was having an early Mother's Day potluck dinner. I got to see a lot of the family, including my cousin Bryan (with whom I was raised much like a brother) and his fiancee Stefani, who are trying to arrange plans for their wedding. As the discussion had turned to cost-saving measures, I offered to officiate. Surprisingly, Stefani accepted my offer, and we will be planning the ceremony soon.

After dinner, I went to hang out with Jen, who was in town for Mother's Day. We did a few laps around the lake, then did extrasensory perception tests with a deck of cards before crashing for the night.

I took Jen back to her grandmother's house in the morning and hung out there until lunchtime, when I met my parents, grandparents and nieces at In & Out. We returned home, and my dad and I worked on fixing my computer. You see, somehow a screw has lodged itself into my headphone port, rendering it useless and my computer mute. After realizing the situation was hopeless, we went to Best Buy to buy a new sound card, and an upgrade for my RAM. Best Buy was offering a deal (twin 1GB RAM cards for $54), so it seemed like a good time to go shopping.

The Geek Squad was less than helpful. First off, they informed me that they had $30 SDI sound cards in stock. When we went to the shelves, there was an empty space where the sticker was. After 10 minutes of searching in the back, we were informed that they were out of stock. 15 more minutes in the back revealed that their $50 model was similarly sold out, but that the $115 and $145 models were in abundance. I was also told that the deal on RAM was not for the type my computer needed, and that I would need to buy each 1 GB card for over $75, and that deal was only online.

Exasperated, I asked if there were any other shops in town that would have SDI cards. The Geek Squad rep suggested Wal-Mart. Now, I'm not a Wal-Mart expert, but it seems to me like thinking they'll have sound cards was a bit of a stretch. Nonetheless, on the way out of town, I checked in the Super Wal-Mart. The electronics section was a literal 10 minute walk from the front door, and another 10 minutes back after confirming that no, Wal-Mart doesn't carry SDI cards.

By this time, I was a very grumpy bear, and decided to try the one last bastion of hope for completing my task: Fry's. I left Bakersfield just after 6, and called the closest Fry's in LA. The phone rang and rang, and then disconnected. It did this every time I tried to call, so I couldn't learn their closing times. I drove all the way down and pulled up in front of the store just after 8. Other cars were similarly pulling up, their drivers and passengers leaving the cars and trying to enter Fry's, so I thought I had made it in time. WRONG! Fry's closes at 7 on Sunday!

Needless to say, I was angry, and took my aggression out by helping to build kythera's new IKEA entertainment center.